List of Soviet armies

An army, besides the generalized meanings of ‘a country's armed forces’ or its ‘land forces’, is a type of formation in militaries of various countries, including the Soviet Union. This article serves a central point of reference for Soviet armies without individual articles, and explains some of the differences between Soviet armies and their U.S. and British counterparts.

During the Russian Civil War, most Soviet armies consisted of independent rifle and cavalry divisions, and corps were rare.
During World War II, Soviet armies included the all-arms (общевойсковые), tank (танковые), air (воздушные), and air-defence (противо-воздушной обороны (ПВО)) armies which included a number of corps, divisions, brigades, regiments and battalions belonging largely to the appropriate branch of the armed forces or of the arm of service, such as the rifle corps. In the emergency of June 1941 it was found that inexperienced commanders had difficulty controlling armies with more than two or three subordinate corps, and they several armies were disbanded, to be reformed later in the war, thus Soviet High Command's (Stavka's) Circular 01, of July 15, 1941, directed several changes to Red Army force structure, including the elimination of rifle corps headquarters and subordination of rifle divisions directly to rifle army headquarters.[1] Following the Second World War, an army was reorganised with four or five divisions, often equivalent to a corps in the militaries of other countries. During a war, an Army of the Soviet military was typically subordinated to a front. In peacetime, an army was usually subordinated to a military district.

There were large variations in structure and size. For example, in the October 1944 Battle of Debrecen, the 27th Army was a massive organization with nine rifle divisions, an artillery division, and four attached Romanian infantry divisions; the 40th Army, by comparison, had only five rifle divisions.[2] Both armies were part of the Second Ukrainian Front.

Special titles given to Soviet armies included red banner army, following the award of the Order of the Red Banner and shock army; the famous image of the flag over the Reichstag was of men from the 3rd Shock Army's 150th Rifle Division. In accordance with prewar planning that saw shock armies as special penetration formations, the 1st Shock Army was formed in November–December 1941 to spearhead the December counteroffensive north of Moscow.[3] A total of five shock armies were formed by the winter campaigns of 1942–43, the 2nd (former 26th Army), 3rd, and 4th (the former 27th Army). During the Stalingrad counteroffensive the 5th Shock Army was the last such formation formed; the 2nd Shock Army was reformed three times, most famously after being encircled in the Lyuban operation south of Leningrad, after which its commander, General Andrey Vlasov, went over to the German side.

As World War II went on, the complement of supporting units attached to a Soviet army became larger and more complex. By 1945, a Soviet army typically had attached mortar, antitank, anti-aircraft, howitzer, gun–howitzer, rocket launcher, independent tank, self-propelled gun, armored train, flamethrower, and engineer-sapper units.[N 1] In particular, the ratio of artillery pieces to riflemen increased as the war went on, reflecting the Soviet need for increased firepower as manpower reserves began to decline after staggering infantry losses.[4]

There were 79 Combined Arms army headquarters created during the Second World War, with 16 permanently disbanded during the war, and over 20 converted to other army, Front or military district headquarters.[6] After World War II, Soviet armies were known as combined arms armies (obshchevoyskovyye armiyi), sometimes translated during the early Cold War as all-arms armies.

Part of the Soviet Southwestern Front on the outbreak of war. 10 August 1941 headquarters disbanded. Reformed twice in 1941 and twice again in 1942.[8] Reformed December 1944 and became HQ Voronezh Military District July 1945. Reformed 1952 and disbanded 1997-98. Reformed 2010.

18 December 1944 headquarters redesignated HQ 9th Guards Army (Other information indicates that 9 Guards Army was formed from HQ Separate Airborne Army in January 1945) Stationed in Austria as part of the Central Group of Forces briefly after the war, in 1946 it comprised three rifle corps totalling nine divisions.

Formed in September 1939 in the Moscow Military District and deployed to the Western Special MD. Took part in 1939 invasion of Poland. On June 22, 1941 part of Soviet Western Front. Destroyed by German forces. HQ officially disbanded 5 July 1941. Reformed three times in 1941.[9]

Formerly the Southern Cavalry-Mechanized Army Group of the Kiev Special MD. Since the autumn of 1939 at some points the Army was 'known' as the '1st Horse Army', recalling the Civil War glories of that formation, it started the war within Soviet Southwestern Front. HQ disbanded 10 August 1941 after the Army was caught in an encirclement south of Kiev along with the 6th and 18th Armies. Reformed twice in 1941 and reformed again by conversion of previous 5th Tank Army in mid April 1943.[10]

In World War II, formerly the Murmanskaya Operative Group of the Leningrad Military District. It was upgraded to Army status in October 1939. After the end of Winter War, it remained in the Kola peninsula, coming under the command of the Belomorsky Military District and having two rifle corps. Carried out 1944 Petsamo-Kirkenes Operation under Karelian Front, probably including 45th Rifle Division. 31 July 1945 HQ disbanded and personnel used to fill out HQ, Belomorsky Military District. The Army was re-established in 1948 with 126th Light Mountain Rifle Corps and 1222nd Artillery Regiment. According to some data, there were plans for its use in Chukotka and, in the case of war, landing in Alaska,[11] it was disbanded in 1953 after Stalin's death.

In World War II, the headquarters was formed in July, 1940 within the Soviet Far East Front on the basis of HQ 20th Rifle Corps. After the end of the war and the completion of the invasion of Manchuria, 15th Army was immediately relocated to Kamchatka and the Kuriles, its composition after the crushing defeat of Japan was changed substantially. It comprised 2 rifle corps (8 divisions) and two fortified regions.

Before Operation Barbarossa, HQ 16th Army was formed in July, 1940 in the Transbaikal Military District (uniting the forces deployed in Dauriya (Даурии). In June, 1941 it was relocated (with six Trans-Baikalian divisions) to Ukraine and subordinated to the Kiev Special MD.[12] HQ disbanded 8 August 1941 after encirclement just west of Smolensk as part of the Western Front. Reformed three times in 1941; under Bagramyan's leadership, the 16th Army performed so well during the February 1943 Bryansk offensive that the Army was redesignated the 11th Guards Army.[13] Later briefly formed in the Far East in 1945.

Formed from the 1st Army Group of the Transbaikal Military District (Lenskii 2001). During the invasion of Manchuria 17th Army included 209th Rifle Division, 278th Rifle Division, 284th Rifle Division, the 70th and 82nd Separate Tank Battalions, and other artillery and tank destroyer units,[14] it ended its existence four months after the end of the war with Japan.

The Army HQ was formed from Headquarters Kharkov Military District, and taking six divisions under command, it joined the Southern Front. The Army HQ was destroyed in the Battle of Uman. Reformed, took part in 1943 Kerch-Eltigen Operation, it became after the war a Mountain Army in the territory of the Carpathian Military District and North Bukovina, where it was disbanded in May 1946. Some of its elements were used to form HQ 8 Mechanised Army.

The Army HQ was formed from HQ North Caucasus Military District; under instruction from the General Staff it was moved to Cherkassy in Ukraine with five North-Caucasian divisions as the "operative group of the NCMD staff". It was then included in the Main Command reserve; the Army HQ formally disbanded 20 October 1941, after having been wiped out in the Vyazma Pocket, along with various formations under its command, including the 89th Rifle Division, first formation. Reformed three times in 1941, and after the war remained in Poland until 1947, having two Guards Rifle Corps containing six divisions.

HQ 20 Army, formed from the Orel MD staff, was moved to Smolensk by 25 June 1941 and brought into the Main Command reserve. The Army HQ was disbanded having been encircled and destroyed in the Vyazma Pocket. Reformed November 1941 for the Battle of Moscow, comprising 331st and 350th Rifle Divisions, and three separate brigades. Fought as part of the Western Front. In 1942-43 it operated on the Rzhev-Sychevka bridgehead, and took part in the Rzhev-Vyazma offensive operation. In 1944 it became part of the Stavka Reserve and was then reassigned to Kalinin Front and Leningrad Front, it was disbanded in April 1944 by being dispersed within the formations of 3rd Baltic Front.

Formed from HQ Volga Military District, the Army HQ had moved up to Chernigov by 25 June 1941, joining the Main command reserve. HQ awarded 'Guards' status and renumbered to HQ 6th Guards Army on 16 April 1943.

Formed from HQ Ural MD, on General Staff instructions the 22nd Army joined the Main command reserve in June 1941. After disbandment HQ personnel were used to form HQ, Tavricheskii Military District in the Crimea. 109th Rifle Corps arrived with the Army HQ. Reformed in 1990s and disbanded 2010 with the Russian Ground Forces.

The army headquarters, formed from Headquarters Siberian Military District; under General Staff instructions of 25 June 1941 arrived on 28 Jun 1941 at Vyazma, accepting on arrival in this area six Siberian rifle divisions of the high command reserve. Involved in the Yelnya Offensive, August–September 1941. HQ disbanded 10 October 1941, having been destroyed in the Vyazma Pocket. Reformed from 9 December 1941 to 4 January 1942, then redesignated as 1st Reserve Army (II).[15] Reformed again on 20 May 1942, then redesignated as HQ 58th Army (III) on August 28, 1942;[16] Soon afterwards reformed again from 9th Reserve Army and ended up in the Stalingrad area. Then redesignated 4th Guards Army on 16 April 1943 (Glantz, 2005, p. 511), or May 1943 (Perechen)

Formed in the Soviet Far East Front on the basis of HQ 43rd Rifle Corps (in Primorski Krai).[17] In June 1941 comprised 39th Rifle Corps with 32nd Rifle Division, 40th, and 92nd Rifle Divisions, plus 105th Rifle Division as Army troops. Immediately after the end of the war with Japan it included two rifle corps (6 divisions) and 8 fortified regions, but they were all reorganised in 1946 into machine-gun artillery divisions. Took part in Soviet move into northern Korea immediately after World War II had ended, and was headquartered at Pyongyang for a period, it was situated within what may have been the Maritime Province Military District up to 1955, covering boundary with Korea and China, when it was disbanded.

HQ formed in July, 1940 in the Kiev Special Military District. The Army HQ was officially disbanded 25 September 1941 after Battle of Kiev (1941). Reformed three times in 1941, on 12 October from 1st Guards Special Rifle Corps and at another point after being redesignated HQ 2nd Shock Army; finally disbanded in Romania in 1947.

HQ formed in May 1941 in the Baltic Special Military District according to Sovnarkom Decision 23.04.41 No.1113-460ββ.[18] Redesignated HQ, 4th Shock Army on 25 December 1941. Reformed, 27th Army was involved in the Battle of Kiev (1943) and the Battle of Romania (1944).

The Army headquarters was formed in June 1941 from Headquarters Archangelsk Military District, and was sent south, arriving in high command reserve in the Kirov- Bryansk region by the end of the month.

Joined Reserve Front when formed and then eventually Karelian Front. Second Formation established at Semipalatinsk in 1969 on the basis of the 1st Army Corps(?) almost simultaneously with the creation of the Central Asian Military District as a result of the tensions with China. The Army HQ remained in place until 24 September 1981 when it was redesignated 1st Army Corps, and then seven years later 32nd Army was apparently reformed on 27 February 1988. On June 4, 1991, 32nd Army was redesignated 40th Army.[19]

Erickson says Mikhail Kirponos ordered this Army to form to hold the Cherkassy bridgehead, on the basis of 8th Mechanised Corps, keeping General Ryabyshev as commander.[21] Spent much of the Cold War serving as part of the Carpathian Military District. After the fall of the Soviet Union the Army became part of the Ukrainian Ground Forces and was later redesignated the 38th Army Corps; the Army Corps, formerly headquartered at Ivano-Frankovsk, was disbanded in May 2003, and many of its formations reassigned.

First formed for the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran and disbanded December 1941. Reformed May 1942 from elements of 34th Army. Transferred to the Far East for the Soviet invasion of Manchuria. Disbanded October 1945.

Reformed twice in 1942 having been destroyed. Reformed again in March 1943 from remnants of 3rd Tank Army. On the completion of the war was relocated from Austria to Romania, where it became part of the Southern Group of Forces, it was disbanded together with the Southern Group of Forces in 1947.

Formed in the Siberian Military District in November 1941, but then the Army was redesignated the 3rd Tank Army in May 1942. Reestablished within the Kalinin Front in June 1942 but then redesignated the 39th Army in August, it was reformed in the Transcaucasian Front from the 24th Army on August 28, 1942. The Army HQ was reorganised as Headquarters Volga Military District in October 1943;[28] the HQ was reformed in 1995 in the North Caucasus Military District.

Formed from 5th Reserve Army. Fought at Battle of Stalingrad and the Operation Uranus for which was reflagged as the 1st Guards Army on 4 November 1942. Second formation was formed from 2nd Reserve Army. From May was part of the Bryansk Front, from 10 October with the Central Front (from 20 October 1943 Belorussian Front).

Formed by the elevation of 18th Guards Rifle Corps to Army status. Commanded by Lt Gen M.I. Kazakov, on the eve of Operation Star in February 1943 the Army comprised the 161st, 180th, 219th and 270th Rifle Divisions, plus smaller formations;[29] the Army was moved without troops from Germany to Transcaucasia in June 1945, where its HQ was reorganised as the HQ of the Baku Military District.[7]

Formed from NKVD border guard troops. On February 5, 1943 this army was designated as the 70th Army with Far-Eastern, Transbaikal, Siberian, Central-Asian, Ural and Stalingrad divisions renamed respectively: 102nd, 106th, 140th, 162nd, 175th and 181st Rifle divisions, a total of 69236 personnel;[31] the 70th Army was formed in Zlatoust and transferred to Konstantin Rokossovsky’s Central Front (Soviet Union), which was preparing a local offensive, and suffered its first defeat. In June 1945 it arrived, possibly just an HQ without any troops, from Germany, in the South Urals, where its HQ was reorganised as the headquarters of the South Urals Military District.[7]

Formed first from 2nd Reserve Army.[32] Reformed three times. After the war ended the Army was moved together with a number of its components to Central Asia, where its headquarters during July 1945 became HQ Turkestan Military District; the 306th and 376th Rifle Divisions became mountain-rifle divisions. Active until around 1991–92 or afterwards with the Ukrainian Ground Forces.

After the war the Army returned to the Moscow Military District with two guard corps (six divisions). According to Feskov et al., the Army HQ existed only on paper, after the reductions of the 1950s, although it is possible an operations group of several officers was present.

All formations of this army (except 76th Rifle Corps with the 287th and 389th Rifle Divisions) were disbanded in the summer of 1945, and the Army HQ was reorganised as part of the Volga Military District.

Redesignation of 66th Army, April 1943. The Army arrived from Austria to the territory of the West Ukraine in 1946-1947, where it was disbanded, in contrast to some its divisions, including of those remaining in Austria (13th Guards MD and 95th Rifle Div). Up to its disbandment it had three guard rifle corps (nine divisions).

David Glantz writes that Sep Airborne Army was formed in October 1944.[34] Thereafter, 9 Gds Army was formed on the basis of 7th Army staff and Sep Airborne Army in December 1944, with 37th, 38th and 39th Guards RDs joining in Hungary in Feb. 1945. Then took part in the Vienna Offensive and Prague Offensive. In the Moscow area in 1946 redesignated HQ Airborne Forces.[35]

Redesignation of 30th Army, 16 April 1943. In October 1945 the Army was in the Estonian SSR, forming part of the Leningrad Military District and having four Guards Rifle Corps. 7th Guards Rifle Corps (Haapsalu, Estonian SSR); 15th Guards Rifle Corps (Rakvere, Estonian SSR); 19th Guards Rifle Corps (Valga, Estonian SSR); and 41st Guards Rifle Corps. In 6.46 the 15th and 41st Guards Rifle Corps were disbanded. In April 1947, the 7th Guards Rifle Corps was disbanded, followed by the 19th Guards Rifle Corps two months later - divisions were now directly attached to the army. On 30 March 1948 renamed 4th Guards Rifle Corps.[36] Prior to the beginning of the 1950s it was still in Estonia, including within its structure the 1st Machine-Gun Artillery Division (formerly of naval infantry(?)), and several guards divisions - 36th Guards Мechanised Division, which was to become the 8th Guards Motor Rifle Division (confirmed by Holm 2015 as still part of 4 Gv AK), 7, 8, 118, 122nd RD (some of them became brigades).[37]

Created in the Odessa Military District on the basis of the 10th Budapest Guards Rifle Corps. It included a corps HQ and four motor rifle divisions: 28th, 59th, 86th Guards, 48th, and 180th. Following the end of the Cold War it became entangled in the War of Transnistria.

Formed from the 19th Army (2nd formation). After the war ended the Army was moved together with a number of its components to Central Asia, where its headquarters during July 1945 became HQ Turkestan Military District; the 306th and 376th Rifle Divisions became mountain-rifle divisions.

Formed from the 26th Army. Destroyed twice in 1942; until January 1946 it remained in the northeast of Germany (with HQ at Schwerin), after which in full strength it was returned to the USSR, where its HQ was reorganised as HQ Arkhangel'sk Military District.

Formed from the 60th Army (1st formation). Traced its history from the 3rd Shock Army of the Second World War; the Shock (Assault) Army was different in composition to other Combined Arms Armies between the 1960s and the 1980s. Title was actually 3rd Red Banner Army, rather than Shock, during Cold War. In the early 1990s the Army included the 7th, 10th, 12th, and 47th Guard Tank Divisions.

Formed from the 27th Army (1st formation) From the Baltic States in the summer of 1945 was directed to North Kazakhstan, where its HQ formed HQ Steppe District. Its 19th Rifle Corps may have been reassigned to combat Ukrainian insurgents in the Kharkov region.

Formed from the 10th Reserve Army. Redesignated as HQ South-Eastern Front October 1942, with its forces transferred to 24th Army, reestablished from 63rd Army in November 1942, renamed 3rd Guards Army in December 1942, and that same month reformed from 4th Reserve Army.[39] Part of Group of Soviet Forces in Germany for a time after the end of the war.

Formed from 58th Army. Encircled and almost totally destroyed in March 1943, redesignated 57th Army in April 1943. Reformed May 1943 and redesignated 3rd Guards Tank Army on May 14, 1945. Known as 3rd Guards Red Banner Mechanized Army in 1946 and headquartered in Luckenwalde, Germany. Redesignated 18th Guards Army in 1957.

Ceased to exist from December 1942 until July 1943. Achieved Guards status by an order of the NKO dated March, 17th, 1945(Krasnaya Zvezda). From 1946 to 1957 the Army was named 4th Guards Mechanized Army. Renamed 20th Guards Army 1960.[38] After the fall of the Soviet Union 20th Guards Army was withdrawn to Voronezh.

5th Tank Army

June 1942

April 1943

Fought on the Briansk, Voronezh and Southwestern Fronts. Spearheaded the northern pincer of encirclement of German 6th Army during operation Uranus before being converted to 12th Army in April 1943.

'Red Banner' The Army was stationed for the entire postwar period in Belorussia and for almost all those years it included the 8th Guards, 29th and also the 193rd (formerly the 193rd Rifle Division) Tank Divisions.

'Red Banner' Was in Mongolia for 15 years after the war. The friendship with China of those days and the Nikita Khrushchev military reductions changed the fate of 6th Guards Tank Army, and in 1959 it was relocated to Dnepropetrovsk. Toward the end of the 1980s it retained three Guards Tank Divisions - the 17th, 42nd (the former 42nd Rifle Division) and the 75th (formerly the 75th Rifle Division).

Created in the Carpathian Military District, when elements of the 52nd and 18th Armies were reorganised as the 8th Mechanised Army. Parts of the Army participated in the suppression of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956; the 8th Mechanised Army was redesignated the 8th Tank Army in 1957.

The Leningrad People's Militia Army (Armiya Leningradskogo Narodnogo Opolcheniya) was born mostly from the 168 battalions of "fighters" previously raised to deal with expected saboteurs and parachutists, it reported directly to the commander of the Northern Front. The initial intention was to create an army with seven divisions.[44]

The Novgorod Army Operational Group was first established on 13 August 1939 by the order No. 0129 of the Chairman of the People's Commissariat for Defence, Marshal of the Soviet Union K.E. Voroshilov. The Group was created for operations in Estonia and Latvia, it became the 8th Army in October 1939 (or 14 September 1939[45]) It had the task of providing security of the Northwestern borders of the USSR. Was reestablished on July 31, 1941, troops from the east and the management of the defense sector (from 23 July 1941) Luga Operational Group, it was part of the 'operational army' from 31 July 1941 to 6 August 1941 when it was redesignated as the 48th Army. Reformed as an operational group of the Volkhov Front under the command of Major General Korovnikov formed on August 16, 1941, bringing together units to the east of Novgorod, including remnants of the 28th Tank Division. Active 16 August 1941 to 15 May 1942. See ru:Новгородская армейская оперативная группа.

^The 47th Army in January 1945 had nine rifle divisions, a Guards gun-artillery brigade, a rocket launcher regiment, five anti-aircraft regiments, an independent tank regiment, four regiments of self-propelled guns, an armoured train unit, a DUKW truck battalion, an engineer-sapper brigade, and two flamethrower units.

^The ratio of field guns to ration strength in the Red Army increased from 6 guns per 1,000 men in June 1941, to 9 guns by April 1945. Sources are Krivosheev, pp 250–51, and Glantz (When Titans Clashed), pp 301, 305.

Corps is a term used for several different kinds of organisation. Within military terminology a corps may be: an operational formation, sometimes known as a field corps, which consists of two or more divisions, such as the Corps d'armée known as I Corps of Napoleon's Grande Armée); these usages overlap. Corps may be a generic term for a non-military organization, such as the U. S. Peace Corps. In many armies, a corps is a battlefield formation composed of two or more divisions, commanded by a lieutenant general. During World War I and World War II, due to the large scale of combat, multiple corps were combined into armies which formed into army groups. In Western armies with numbered corps, the number is indicated in Roman numerals; the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps was raised in 1914, consisting of Australian and New Zealand troops, who went on to fight at Gallipoli in 1915. In early 1916, the original corps was reorganised and two corps were raised: I ANZAC Corps and II ANZAC Corps. In the stages of World War I, the five infantry divisions of the First Australian Imperial Force —consisting of personnel who had volunteered for service overseas—were united as the Australian Corps, on the Western Front, under Lieutenant General Sir John Monash.

During World War II, the Australian I Corps was formed to co-ordinate three Second Australian Imperial Force units: the 6th, 7th and 9th Divisions, as well as other Allied units on some occasions, in the North African campaign and Greek campaign. Following the commencement of the Pacific War, there was a phased withdrawal of I Corps to Australia, the transfer of its headquarters to the Brisbane area, to control Allied army units in Queensland and northern New South Wales. II Corps was formed, with Militia units, to defend south-eastern Australia, III Corps controlled land forces in Western Australia. Sub-corps formations controlled Allied land forces in the remainder of Australia. I Corps headquarters was assigned control of the New Guinea campaign. In early 1945, when I Corps was assigned the task of re-taking Borneo, II Corps took over in New Guinea. Canada first fielded a corps-sized formation in the First World War; the Canadian Corps consisted of four Canadian divisions. After the Armistice, the peacetime Canadian militia was nominally organized into corps and divisions but no full-time formations larger than a battalion were trained or exercised.

Early in the Second World War, Canada's contribution to the British-French forces fighting the Germans was limited to a single division. After the fall of France in June 1940, a second division moved to England, coming under command of a Canadian corps headquarters; this corps was renamed I Canadian Corps as a second corps headquarters was established in the UK, with the eventual formation of five Canadian divisions in England. I Canadian Corps fought in Italy, II Canadian Corps in NW Europe, the two were reunited in early 1945. After the formations were disbanded after VE Day, Canada has never subsequently organized a Corps headquarters. Royal Canadian Army Cadets: A Corps size in the RCAC is different everywhere, depending on the size, the Commanding Officer can be a Captain or Major; the National Revolutionary Army Corps was a type of military organization used by the Chinese Republic, exercised command over two to three NRA Divisions and a number of Independent Brigades or Regiments and supporting units.

The Chinese Republic had 133 Corps during the Second Sino-Japanese War. After losses in the early part of the war, under the 1938 reforms, the remaining scarce artillery and the other support formations were withdrawn from the Division and was held at Corps, or Army level or higher; the Corps became the basic tactical unit of the NRA having strength nearly equivalent to an allied Division. The French Army under Napoleon used corps-sized formations as the first formal combined-arms groupings of divisions with reasonably stable manning and equipment establishments. Napoleon first used the Corps d'armée in 1805; the use of the Corps d'armée was a military innovation that provided Napoleon with a significant battlefield advantage in the early phases of the Napoleonic Wars. The Corps was designed to be an independent military group containing cavalry and infantry, capable of defending against a numerically superior foe; this allowed Napoleon to mass the bulk of his forces to effect a penetration into a weak section of enemy lines without risking his own communications or flank.

This innovation stimulated other European powers to adopt similar military structures. The Corps has remained an echelon of French Army organization to the modern day; as fixed military formation in peace-time it was used in all European armies after Battle of Ulm in 1805. In Prussia it was introduced by Order of His Majesty from November 5, 1816, in order to strengthen the readiness to war; the paramilitary forces of Pakistan's two main western provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan are the Frontier Corps founded in 1907 during British Rule as at least three various organizations before being combined together. They are charged with guarding the country's wes

The Stavka was the high command of the armed forces in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. In Imperial Russia Stavka refers to the administrative staff, to the General Headquarters in the late 19th Century Imperial Russian armed forces and subsequently in the Soviet Union. In Western literature it is sometimes written in uppercase, incorrect since it is not an acronym. Stavka may refer to its members, as well as to the headquarter location; the commander-in-chief of the Russian army at the beginning of World War I was Grand Duke Nicholas Nicholaievitch, a grandson of Tsar Nicholas I. Appointed at the last minute in August 1914, he played no part in formulating the military plans in use at the beginning of the war. Nikolai Yanushkevich was his chief of staff. In the summer of 1915 the Tsar himself took personal command, with Mikhail Alekseyev as his chief of staff. In the years 1915–1917 Stavka was based in Mogilev and the Tsar, Nicholas II, spent long periods there as Commander-in-Chief; the Stavka was divided into several departments: Department of General-Quartermaster Department of General on Duty Department of military transportations Naval department Diplomatic chancery The Stavka was first established in Baranovichi.

On 8 August 1941 it was again reorganized into Stavka of the Supreme Main Command. On the same day Strategic Directions commands were instituted. A 17 February 1945 decree set out the membership of Stavka as Stalin, Aleksandr Vasilevsky, Aleksei Antonov, Nikolai Bulganin and Kuznetsov. General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation Creation of the Main Command of the Armed Forces of the Union of USSR

Military organization or military organisation is the structuring of the armed forces of a state so as to offer such military capability as a national defense policy may require. In some countries paramilitary forces are included in a nation's armed forces, though not considered military. Armed forces that are not a part of military or paramilitary organizations, such as insurgent forces mimic military organizations, or use ad hoc structures, while formal military organization tends to use hierarchical forms; the use of formalized ranks in a hierarchical structure came into widespread use with the Roman Army. In modern times, executive control and administration of military organization is undertaken by governments through a government department within the structure of public administration known as a Ministry of Defense, Department of Defense, or Department of War; these in turn manage Armed Services that themselves command formations and units specialising in combat, combat support and combat-service support.

The civilian or civilian executive control over the national military organization is exercised in democracies by an elected political leader as a member of the government's Cabinet known as a Minister of Defense. Subordinated to that position are Secretaries for specific major operational divisions of the armed forces as a whole, such as those that provide general support services to the Armed Services, including their dependants. There are the heads of specific departmental agencies responsible for the provision and management of specific skill- and knowledge-based service such as Strategy advice, Capability Development assessment, or Defense Science provision of research, design and development of technologies. Within each departmental agency will be found administrative branches responsible for further agency business specialization work. In most countries the armed forces are divided into three or four Armed services: army and air force. Many countries have a variation on the standard model of four basic Armed Services.

Most smaller countries have a single organization that encompasses all armed forces employed by the country in question. Third-world armies tend to consist of infantry, while first-world armies tend to have larger units manning expensive equipment and only a fraction of personnel in infantry units, it is worthwhile to make mention of the term joint. In western militaries, a joint force is defined as a unit or formation comprising representation of combat power from two or more branches of the military. Gendarmeries, including equivalents such as Internal Troops, Paramilitary Forces and similar, are an internal security service common in most of the world, but uncommon in Anglo-Saxon countries where civil police are employed to enforce the law, there are tight restrictions on how the armed forces may be used to assist, it is common, at least in the European and Nort

The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of conflict between the European Axis powers and co-belligerentFinland against the Soviet Union and other Allies, which encompassed Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Northeast Europe, Southeast Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945. It has been known as the Great Patriotic War in the former Soviet Union and modern Russia, while in Germany it was called the Eastern Front, or the German-Soviet War by outside parties; the battles on the Eastern Front of the Second World War constituted the largest military confrontation in history. They were characterized by unprecedented ferocity, wholesale destruction, mass deportations, immense loss of life due to combat, exposure and massacres; the Eastern Front, as the site of nearly all extermination camps, death marches and the majority of pogroms, was central to the Holocaust. Of the estimated 70-85 million deaths attributed to World War II, over 30 million, the majority of them civilian, occurred on the Eastern Front.

The Eastern Front was decisive in determining the outcome in the European theatre of operations in World War II serving as the main reason for the defeat of Nazi Germany and the Axis nations. The two principal belligerent powers were Germany and the Soviet Union, along with their respective allies. Though never engaged in military action in the Eastern Front, the United States and the United Kingdom both provided substantial material aid in the form of the Lend-Lease to the Soviet Union; the joint German–Finnish operations across the northernmost Finnish–Soviet border and in the Murmansk region are considered part of the Eastern Front. In addition, the Soviet–Finnish Continuation War may be considered the northern flank of the Eastern Front. Germany and the Soviet Union remained unsatisfied with the outcome of World War I. Soviet Russia had lost substantial territory in Eastern Europe as a result of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, where the Bolsheviks in Petrograd conceded to German demands and ceded control of Poland, Estonia, Latvia and other areas, to the Central Powers.

Subsequently, when Germany in its turn surrendered to the Allies and these territories were liberated under the terms of the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 at Versailles, Soviet Russia was in the midst of a civil war and the Allies did not recognize the Bolshevik government, so no Soviet Russian representation attended. Adolf Hitler had declared his intention to invade the Soviet Union on 11 August 1939 to Carl Jacob Burckhardt, League of Nations Commissioner, by saying: Everything I undertake is directed against the Russians. If the West is too stupid and blind to grasp this I shall be compelled to come to an agreement with the Russians, beat the West and after their defeat turn against the Soviet Union with all my forces. I need the Ukraine as happened in the last war; the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact signed in August 1939 was a non-aggression agreement between Germany and the Soviet Union. It contained a secret protocol aiming to return Central Europe to the pre–World War I status quo by dividing it between Germany and the Soviet Union.

Finland, Estonia and Lithuania would return to the Soviet control, while Poland and Romania would be divided. The Eastern Front was made possible by the German–Soviet Border and Commercial Agreement in which the Soviet Union gave Germany the resources necessary to launch military operations in Eastern Europe. On 1 September 1939 Germany invaded Poland, starting World War II. On 17 September, the Soviet Union invaded Eastern Poland, and, as a result, Poland was partitioned among Germany, the Soviet Union and Lithuania. Soon after that, the Soviet Union demanded significant territorial concessions from Finland, after Finland rejected Soviet demands, the Soviet Union attacked Finland on 30 November 1939 in what became known as the Winter War – a bitter conflict that resulted in a peace treaty on 13 March 1940, with Finland maintaining its independence but losing its eastern parts in Karelia. In June 1940 the Soviet Union illegally annexed the three Baltic states; the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact ostensibly provided security to the Soviets in the occupation both of the Baltics and of the north and northeastern regions of Romania, although Hitler, in announcing the invasion of the Soviet Union, cited the Soviet annexations of Baltic and Romanian territory as having violated Germany's understanding of the Pact.

Moscow partitioned the annexed Romanian territory between the Ukrainian and Moldavian Soviet republics. Adolf Hitler had argued in his autobiography Mein Kampf for the necessity of Lebensraum: acquiring new territory for Germans in Eastern Europe, in particular in Russia, he envisaged settling Germans there, as according to Nazi ideology the Germanic people constituted the "master race", while exterminating or deporting most of the existing inhabitants to Siberia and using the remainder as slave labour. Hitler as early as 1917 had referred to the Russians as inferior, believing that the Bolshevik Revolution had put the Jews in power over the mass of Slavs, who were, in Hitler's opinion, incapable of ruling themselves but instead being ruled by Jewish masters; the Nazi leadership, saw the war against the Soviet Union as a struggle between the ideologies of Nazism and Jewish Bolshevism, ensuring territorial expansion for the Germanic Übermensch, who according to Nazi ideology were the AryanHerrenvolk, at the expense of

The Battle of Debrecen, called by the Red Army the Debrecen Offensive Operation, was a battle taking place 6–29 October 1944 on the Eastern Front during World War II. The offensive was conducted by the 2nd Ukrainian Front under Marshal Rodion Malinovsky, it was opposed by General Maximilian Fretter-Pico's German Sixth Army and the allied HungarianVII Army Corps of Army Group South Ukraine The Axis units were forced to retreat some 160 kilometers, while opposing the 2nd Ukrainian Front which had Debrecen in Hungary as its strategic objective. On 23 August 1944, Germany's former ally, Romania had declared war on its ally Hungary; the subsequent drive of Soviet General Fedor Tolbukhin's 3rd Ukrainian Front into Romania destroyed any semblance of an organised defensive line. On 8 September, another former German ally, declared war on Germany. By this time, aided by the 2nd Ukrainian Front under Malinovsky had destroyed thirteen Axis divisions, taking over 100,000 prisoners. Both Malinovsky and Tolbukhin were promoted to Marshal of the Soviet Union for this on 10 and 12 September respectively.

These developments had opened up a 650 kilometer gap in Friessner's Army Group. On 24 September 1944, Friessner's Army Group South Ukraine was redesignated Army Group South. General Fretter-Pico's Sixth Army formed the nucleus of Friessner's force, along with the Hungarian Second Army; the German-Hungarian force was designated Armeegruppe Fretter-Pico. Meanwhile, the Soviet forces were worn down by the Iasi-Chisinau Strategic Offensive Operation and the Belgrade Offensive, had to contend with logistical difficulties caused by the different railway gauge used in Romania. Fearing encirclement, commander of Army Group South Ukraine GeneraloberstJohannes Friessner requested Hitler's permission to withdraw. Hitler promised additional forces for Friessner's army group. Hitler ordered Friessner to start a new offensive with the goal of a destruction of two of Malinovsky's Armies, the 27th Army and the 6th Guards Tank Army. In addition, he was ordered to retake two vital passes in the Southern Carpathians.

On 14 September 1944, Malinovsky, in conjunction with the 3rd Ukrainian Front, launched the Belgrade Offensive. Friessner had been concentrating troops for his own planned offensive, Malinovsky's 2nd Ukrainian Front ran into heavy resistance. After a week of fruitless attacks, Malinovsky called off his offensive and ordered the exhausted 6th Guards Tank Army, along with Cavalry Mechanized Group commanded by Pliyev, 4th Guards Cavalry Corps, 6th Guards Cavalry Corps, with 389 tanks and assault guns, Cavalry Tank Group General Major Sergei Ilyich Gorshkov's 5th Guards Cavalry Corps with the 23rd Tank Corps attached, to the area near Oradea. By the end of September 1944, both Malinovsky and Friessner had received new orders. Malinovsky was now ordered to attack towards Budapest from the salient to the south around Arad, he was to use the 46th and 1st Romanian Armies with the Cavalry Mechanized Group Pliyev as the exploitation force in case of a successful breakthrough. The remainder of Malinovsky's forces, including the 6th Guards Tank Army, 53rd Army, Cavalry Tank Group Gorshkov, were to attack from the north, near Oradea, towards Debrecen.

The plan was for the two spearheads to encircle the German forces. Meanwhile, Friessner's orders included an attack from Oradea with Armeegruppe Fretter-Pico; the 2nd Ukrainian Front operation began on 6 October 1944, with Malinovsky's southern pincer attacking near Arad, slicing through the Hungarian Third Army. The spearhead of the southern 2nd Ukrainian Front pincer, followed by the Cavalry Mechanized Group Pliyev, had advanced sixty kilometres within the first 24 hours; the attack by the northern 2nd Ukrainian Front pincer ran into difficulty colliding with the 1st Panzer Division and 23rd Panzer Divisions of the German III Panzer Corps. By the end of the day, the northern pincer had advanced only ten kilometres. Reacting Fretter-Pico ordered the 76th Infantry Division into the forward line near Oradea; this freed up the 23rd Panzer Division to move south to counter the breakthrough near Arad. The German Panzer Division Feldherrnhalle 1, refitting at Mezőkövesd, was moved into action to guard potential crossing points on the Tisza River against the advancing 2nd Ukrainian Front units.

By the evening of 7 October 1944, the 2nd Ukrainian Front southern pincer had advanced further towards the Tisza River. Meanwhile, the northern pincer was still stalled near Oradea. In this area the German-Hungarian forces had managed to halt several flanking attempts by the 6th Guards Tank Army. By 10 October, Malinovsky's troops occupied several bridgeheads on the western bank of the Tisza River, elements of the 46th Army and the 18th Tank Corps were driving on Kecskemét, only 70 kilometres from Budapest. Malinovsky, however had to redistribute some of these forces to support the advance of Pliyev's group on the other side of the Tisza; the remaining 2nd Ukrainian Front troops of this spearhead were attacked by the Hungarian cavalry and German anti-aircraft troops and forced to retreat to the Tisza on 11 October. The same day, Hungarian counter-attacks against the 2nd Ukrainian Front's 243rd Rifle Division at the Mindszentbridgehead became so dire that the Romanian VII Corps was rushed to Mindszent to reinforce the bridgehead's defense.

Subsequently, the Romanian 2nd and 4th Infantry Divisions took over 2nd Ukrainian Front bridgeheads on the Tisza below Szolnok. The bridgehead of the 4th Division was attacked on 19 October by the Hungarian 1st Cavalry and 1st Infantry Divisions, which the 4th Division held back until hit on t

The Siege of Leningrad was a prolonged military blockade undertaken from the south by the Army Group North of Nazi Germany against the Soviet city of Leningrad on the Eastern Front in World War II. The Finnish army invaded from the north, co-operating with the Germans until they had recaptured territory lost in the recent Winter War, but refused to make further approaches to the city; the siege started on 8 September 1941. Although the Soviet forces managed to open a narrow land corridor to the city on 18 January 1943, the siege was not lifted until 27 January 1944, 872 days after it began, it was one of the longest and most destructive sieges in history, the costliest in casualties suffered. Some historians classify it as genocide. Leningrad's capture was one of three strategic goals in the German Operation Barbarossa and the main target of Army Group North; the strategy was motivated by Leningrad's political status as the former capital of Russia and the symbolic capital of the Russian Revolution, its military importance as a main base of the Soviet Baltic Fleet, its industrial strength, housing numerous arms factories.

By 1939, the city was responsible for 11% of all Soviet industrial output. It has been reported that Adolf Hitler was so confident of capturing Leningrad that he had invitations printed to the victory celebrations to be held in the city's Hotel Astoria. Although various theories have been put forward about Germany's plans for Leningrad, including renaming the city Adolfsburg and making it the capital of the new Ingermanland province of the Reich in Generalplan Ost, it is clear Hitler's intention was to utterly destroy the city and its population. According to a directive sent to Army Group North on 29 September, "After the defeat of Soviet Russia there can be no interest in the continued existence of this large urban centre. Following the city's encirclement, requests for surrender negotiations shall be denied, since the problem of relocating and feeding the population cannot and should not be solved by us. In this war for our existence, we can have no interest in maintaining a part of this large urban population."Hitler's ultimate plan was to raze Leningrad to the ground and give areas north of the River Neva to the Finns.

Army Group North under Field MarshalWilhelm Ritter von Leeb advanced to Leningrad, its primary objective. Von Leeb's plan called for capturing the city on the move, but due to Hitler's recall of 4th Panzer Group, von Leeb had to lay the city under siege indefinitely after reaching the shores of Lake Ladoga, while trying to complete the encirclement and reaching the Finnish Army under Marshal Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim waiting at the Svir River, east of Leningrad. Finnish military forces were north of Leningrad, while German forces occupied territories to the south. Both German and Finnish forces had the goal of encircling Leningrad and maintaining the blockade perimeter, thus cutting off all communication with the city and preventing the defenders from receiving any supplies – although Finnish participation in the blockade consisted of recapture of lands lost in the Winter War. Thus, it is argued that much of the Finns participation was defensive; the Germans planned on lack of food being their chief weapon against the citizens.

On Friday, 27 June 1941, the Council of Deputies of the Leningrad administration organised "First response groups" of civilians. In the next days, Leningrad's civilian population was informed of the danger and over a million citizens were mobilised for the construction of fortifications. Several lines of defences were built along the city's perimeter to repulse hostile forces approaching from north and south by means of civilian resistance. In the south, the fortified line ran from the mouth of the Luga River to Chudovo, Uritsk and through the Neva River. Another line of defence passed through Peterhof to Gatchina, Pulkovo and Koltushy. In the north the defensive line against the Finns, the Karelian Fortified Region, had been maintained in Leningrad's northern suburbs since the 1930s, was now returned to service. A total of 306 km of timber barricades, 635 km of wire entanglements, 700 km of anti-tank ditches, 5,000 earth-and-timber emplacements and reinforced concrete weapon emplacements and 25,000 km of open trenches were constructed or excavated by civilians.

The guns from the cruiser Aurora were moved inland to the Pulkovo Heights to the south of Leningrad. The 4th Panzer Group from East Prussia took Pskov following a swift advance and managed to reach Novgorod by 16 August; the Soviet defenders fought to the death, despite the German discovery of the Soviet defence plans on an officer's corpse. After the capture of Novgorod, General Hoepner's 4th Panzer Group continued its progress towards Leningrad. However, the 18th Army – despite some 350,000 men lagging behind – forced its way to Ostrov and Pskov after the Soviet troops of the Northwestern Front retreated towards Leningrad. On 10 July, both Ostrov and Pskov were captured and the 18th Army reached Narva and Kingisepp, from where advance toward Leningrad continued from the Luga River line; this had the effect of creating siege positions from the Gulf of Finland to Lake Ladoga, with the eventual aim of isolating Leningrad from all directions. The Finnish Army was expected to advance along the eastern shore of Lake Ladoga.

Combined arms is an approach to warfare which seeks to integrate different combat arms of a military to achieve mutually complementary effects. According to strategist William S. Lind, combined arms can be distinguished from the concept of "supporting arms" as follows: Combined arms hits the enemy with two or more arms in such a manner that the actions he must take to defend himself from one make him more vulnerable to another. In contrast, supporting arms is hitting the enemy with two or more arms in sequence, or if then in such combination that the actions the enemy must take to defend himself from one defends himself from the other. Though the lower-echelon units of a combined arms team may be of similar types, a balanced mixture of such units are combined into an effective higher-echelon unit, whether formally in a table of organization or informally in an ad hoc solution to a battlefield problem. For example, an armored division—the modern paragon of combined arms doctrine—consists of a mixture of infantry, artillery and even helicopter units, all coordinated and directed by a unified command structure.

Most modern military units can, if the situation requires it, call on yet more branches of the military, such as infantry requesting bombing or shelling by fighter or bomber aircraft or naval forces to augment their ground offensive or protect their land forces. The mixing of arms is sometimes pushed down below the level where homogeneity ordinarily prevails, for example by temporarily attaching a tank company to an infantry battalion. Combined arms operations date back to antiquity, where armies would field a screen of skirmishers to protect their spearmen during the approach to contact. In the case of the Greekhoplites, the focus of military thinking lay exclusively on the heavy infantry. In more elaborate situations armies of various nationalities fielded different combinations of light, medium, or heavy infantry, chariotry, camelry and artillery. Combined arms in this context was how to best use the cooperating units, variously armed with side-arms, spears, or missile weapons in order to coordinate an attack to disrupt and destroy the enemy.

Philip II of Macedon improved upon the limited combined arms tactics of the Greek city-states and combined the newly created Macedonian phalanx with heavy cavalry and other forces. The phalanx would hold the opposing line in place, until the heavy cavalry could smash and break the enemy line by achieving local superiority; the pre-MarianRoman Legion was consisted of five classes of troops. Equipped velites acted as skirmishers armed with light javelins; the hastati and principes formed the main attacking strength of the legion with sword and pilum, whilst the triarii formed the defensive backbone of the legion fighting as a phalanx with long spears and large shields. The fifth class were pursuit and to guard the flanks. After the Marian reforms the Legion was notionally a unit of heavy infantrymen armed with just sword and pilum, fielded with a small attached auxiliary skirmishers and missile troops, incorporated a small cavalry unit; the legion was sometimes incorporated into a higher-echelon combined arms unit — e.g. in one period it was customary for a general to command two legions plus two sized units of auxiliaries, lighter units useful as screens or for combat in rough terrain.

The army of the Han Dynasty is an example, fielding mêlée infantry and cavalry. Civilizations such as the Carthaginians and Sassanids were known to have fielded a combination of infantry supported by powerful cavalry. At the Battle of Hastings English infantry fighting from behind a shield wall were defeated by a Norman army consisting of archers and mounted knights. One of the tactics used by the Normans was to tempt the English to leave the shield wall to attack retreating Norman infantry only to destroy them in the open with cavalry. Scottish sheltrons –, developed to counter the charges by English heavy cavalry, had been used against English cavalry at the Battle of Stirling Bridge – were destroyed at the Battle of Falkirk by English archers acting in concert with mounted knights. Both Hastings and Falkirk showed how combined arms could be used to defeat enemies relying on only one arm; the English victories of Crécy, Poitiers and Agincourt were examples of a simple form of combined arms, with a combination of dismounted knights forming a foundation for formations of English longbowmen.

The protected longbowmen could down their French opponents at a distance, whilst the armoured men-at-arms could deal with any Frenchmen who made it to the English lines. This is the crux of combined arms: to allow a combination of forces to achieve what would be impossible for its constituent elements to do alone. During the Middle Ages military forces used combined arms as a method of winning battles and furthering a war leader or king's long term goals; some historians claim that during the Middle Ages there was no strategic or tactical art to military combat. Kelly DeVries uses the Merriam-Webster definition of combat "as a general military engagement". In the pursuit of a leader's goals and self-interest tactical and strategic thinking was used along with taking advantage of the terrain and weather in choosing when and where to give battle; the simplest example is the combination of different specialties such as archers, infantry

A military is a heavily-armed highly-organised force primarily intended for warfare, also known as an armed force, typically officially authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct military uniform. It may consist of one or more military branches …

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Plan of new German settlement colonies (marked with dots and diamonds), drawn up by the Friedrich Wilhelm University Institute of Agriculture in Berlin, 1942

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The Order of the Red Banner

First variant Russian Order of the Red Banner on red cloth from 1918–1924

Marshal of the Soviet Union Vasily Blyukher wearing four first variant Orders of the Red Banner

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Entrance to a military engineering school in Kstovo, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast

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A mixed aircraft and ship formation of military vehicles during an exercise with USN and JASDF vehicles.

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